Via Swaziland...in pictures!

What The China-Philippines improved relations could mean for America and China's African friends.

Good morning
I stumbled upon a Philippines development I think will result in Obama's administration leaving the White House as the most fail prone administration the US ever had. It could also compound Africa's challenges too! Read on to find out why and how.

You see, dw.de reports that Duterte, the Philippines' Malema like president has announced an end to the US-Philippines thirty year old military alliance.

You might find this quite boring to mind but it is big news. It signals a shift in world power and puts the White house under immense unwanted and unprepared for pressure to adjust things a bit more in its fight for economic power against Beijing.
Duterte's move will force America out of a region so key in America's fight for oil with China such that because of it Beijing is prepared and I gather very much willing to fund millions into Philippines' economy.

The report even tells us that the deal is so sweet, China and the Philippines have gone so far as to leave territorial disputes just so they be able to eat this cake.

An African might ask: and how is all these going to benefit us African residents?
Listen. In the late 70s China firmly established itself as a world super power contender. It needed resources for this and Africa proved itself well endowed in one very precious resource no growing world power could ignore. It made head way and tried to secure as much oil as it could get. The South China Sea region it contends over with the Philippines has oil. But this oil reserves are not only inaccessible to China but are also very unverifiable because the Philippines, Vietnam and others will not let China eat this sweet cake alone. Because of the above reason, Beijing opted for Africa which had even at the time large oil reserves and a very willing bunch of nations who's need for billions worth of development funds dear old China could easily meet. This is why then Duterte's shift towards China proves itself very vital to an African. The China-Philippines development could mean Africa loses a mutual benefit partner worth billions of dollars.

My mother's country, Swaziland and many like it currently have no means to give China the resource it needs most but Swaziland is partner to & is influential to the Southern African Development community. It has very strong ties with South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique(among others). It would be very strategic therefore, of China to partner with such a country so tenderly because the neighbours have got the resources China and Swaziland both need. Like Swaziland many other developing African countries are in need of China. She gives so well when she gives. Losing her over to the Philippines and the South China Sea.

#thinkUnchained

Life is hard but it sure is worth living.
Follow me @Masiza4000. Thank you for reading.

Sorry for thinking Monsanto is dying

Good morning, well that is if you and I dear reader share the same time zone and also happened to be given the gift of rain at the same time.

While most of us farmers were busy praying for rain a couple of months ago, Bayer and Monsanto were busy courting each other.

I was busy looking for nice news (for a change) updates on Agriculture last week Monday on Twitter and as per usual I changed my twitter feeds and searched for feeds on dear old friend Agriculture in Africa. Many of the updates lived up to what I wanted. I hoped that for a change I will write and post something nice and maybe even inspiring this week. And well poor me I kept on looking and looking until, well there it was “Bayer and Monsanto to merge”.

Truth is I read the feed and took it as one of those tweets from fear mongers we seem to be farming on twitter these days. I therefore dismissed it and paid no mind to it.

This morning I came across a feed again that was from Dutch Welle talking about the two Agribusiness giants, Bayer and Monsanto merging and becoming one very happy family.

There it is; while we were busy thanking God for the rain blessings over the weekend, Bayer was very much thanking Monsanto for agreeing to wed him.

As pointed out by Mariam Mayet, CEO of Africa Center for Biodiversity (ACB)-South Africa, this wedding could result in negative impact for farmers and consumers.

Why does she say so? Well the the answer is very much as ever so simple. This merger will hurt us very, very much.

For starters, Monsanto’s relationship with its primary customer the African farmer, is strained because of the company’s bad track record. The company has had to suffer the humiliation of failing to have its GMO food crop deliver good yield to not only the African farmer but now, that of Europe as well.

Countries that been advocating for GMO food crops as the future and answer to the question of world hunger are now slowly but surely closing their doors to the GMO answer because people in those countries are becoming very vocal and choozey as to what they are to eat. The American market was once a very secure market for GMO food crops and seeds. Today the tides are very much changing and the public is choosing to listen to popular culture icons and eat the pricey organic alternatives.

It is therefore, easy to see the reason for Bayer’s need to marry Monsanto. The ultimate goal here is not just profit but rather the obvious well suited market Africa presents to Bayer and Monsanto. Bayer will become the biggest agri-business and Monsanto will be given a chance to redeem its tarnished image and be saved from death. The following little sample from ACB-Africa Centre For Biodiversity sums the whole Bayer and Monsanto problem in Africa quite nicely:

“The hype around the current wave of GM

research into non- commercial crops in Africa

is purposefully ahistorical and deceitful. It

does not mention past failures involving the

demise of Wambugu’s/Monsanto’s GM sweet

potato research in Kenya (DeGrassi, 2003;

GMWatch, 2015), or the quiet recognition by the

-Danforth Research Centre in 2006 that the GM

cassava it had developed had lost resistance

to African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) (ACB

and GRAIN, 2006). The recent case of Burkina

Faso’s reversal on GM cotton, due to the Bt

Cotton crop’s declining quality, is instructive

for Africa. Burkina Faso’s cotton companies

have committed to phasing out Bt cotton and

returning to the exclusive use of conventional

cotton, by the 2017/18 seasons. The sector is

seeking compensation from Monsanto for

the losses incurred and this is also extremely

telling (Dowd-Uribe and Schnurr, 2016)”.

(African Centre for Biodiversity).

Happy farming fellas…And sorry for thinking Monsanto is dying.

For more articles, please visit www.theopinionatedafrican.blogspot.com

#thinkUnchained

     

From a son of Cush to the sons of Japhet who have forgotten their crime and today think we South African Animals

A picture of Hector Pieterson. Short by Apartheid police during the Soweto Uprising

In the days of the Old new age

People: sons of Noah of Adam

Found themselves a thoughtful greedy

But lazy people of power

For muscle and profit

They saw it fit, wise and righteous

To separate, look down and mark us

The sons of Cush son of Ham, son of Adam;

They took Canaan, our brother’s curse

Married it with our father’s gift

Our mark, our blessing our pride

The sons of Gog and Magog stiffened their necks away

From the truth, the light and the sun

And in front of God, angels man and devil

Took away our pride, our knowledge

Our history our, dignity and our humanity.

Our children no longer know who they are

Man’s science reminds them

Man’s mind decides against what is.

They the sons of Adam our father

Made us forget that we are sons of the first kings and queens of all living man.
We were leached, our minds put away and our muscles enslaved to the will of our brothers the Japhites.
They took us, our best to work in their lands,
In their houses we dangled our nakedness
Whipped to tartars our backs were
Drilled to phi-dogs our minds were...
A dead people we were.
Our land Africa taken
Our inheritance stolen

We are the old people,

The sons of Cush

Builders of the first Kingdoms among man,

Molders of the first and greatest of Empires;

We built Babel,

We built both Meroe and Egypt

Egypt the land of Ham is full of us

For it is our fatherland

Ethiopia is full of us

For it is our prince,

 The main House

The House of Cush;

A refuge to the sons of Abraham son, of Shem son of Noah, the last of Adam;

In this house lies Hail Selassie; last of the house of Judah

But all these has been made nothing,

Our memory of it is snatched away and given to those of white skin

The Pynx stands a dump nose less witness of our times

And Nubia the source of all men’s gods or gold but One,

Remains silenced;
The source of all knowledge learned from both God and Daemons bloated out,

Our history no longer ours.

And our knowledge, glory mark and pride

A mockery to us.

We are a people left loveless

A people whose essence, humanity the image of God is no longer known.

Animals we are

They made it.

Yet today they are brave enough to stand up, point at us and

Laugh their shameless hearts out as if they have had no hand

In this monster’s creation;

Behavior modification well applied rarely fails.

We have had only 250 years to reclaim 7000 years of who we are
And because of only two tumbles
They today stand and mock us the sons of Cush.
A house punished for no curse of their own but whose sin is to the eye of man being Black; our gift, our mark, our pride.